Health Equity and Health Disparities

A guide to health equity and health disparities research.

Tools

AHRQ Health Care Innovations Exchange
The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) created the Health Care Innovations Exchange to speed the implementation of new and better ways of delivering health care.
Clinical Conversation Training Program
The primary goal of Clinical Conversations is to increase knowledge and awareness of health literacy and associated skills and tools. Clinical Conversations has built in discussion points intended to encourage conversation so participants can learn from one another.
Community Health Assessment and Group Evaluation (CHANGE) Tool
A data-collection tool and planning resource for community members who want to make their community a healthier one.
Cultural Competence Health Practitioner Self-Assessment
Self-assessment processes can lead to the development of a strategic organizational plan with clearly defined short-term and long-term goals, measurable objectives, identified fiscal and personnel resources, and enhanced consumer and community partnerships. (Georgetown University, para.1, n.d.)
Culturally Competent Nursing Care
A free, online educational program accredited for nurses by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
Culture, Language and Health Literacy from the Department of Health and Human Services
Effective health communication is as important to health care as clinical skill. To improve individual health and build healthy communities, health care providers need to recognize and address the unique culture, language and health literacy of diverse consumers and communities. This page provides videos and resources to help providers.
Immigrant Partnership and Advocacy Curricular Kit (I-PACK)
A curriculum designed for medical providers and educators who wish to enhance knowledge and skills related to immigrant and refugee health.
Measuring What Works to Achieve Health Equity
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) commissioned Prevention Institute (PI) to develop a set of health equity metrics to inform its broader set of metrics for its Culture of Health. Measuring What Works to Achieve Health Equity: Metrics for the Determinants of Health provides a framework for understanding how disparities in health outcomes are produced and how health equity can be achieved, particularly by addressing the determinants of health. It lays out the determinants of health - structural drivers, community determinants, and healthcare - that must be improved to achieve health equity. It also describes the methods and criteria that Prevention Institute applied to identify health equity metrics. Finally, the paper delineates a set of metrics that could reflect progress toward achieving health equity. (It can be downloaded)

Cultural Competence Webinar Series
This cultural competence webinar series explores the health concerns and healthcare of LGBT people and is open to anyone. It reviews the social determinants that influence how LGBT people seek and receive care and the impact those influences have on health.
The eQuality Toolkit
Practical Skills for LGBTQ and DSD-Affected Patient Care
Focus on Forms and Policy
Creating an Inclusive Environment for LGBT Patients.
SafeZone Project
Provides free downloadable training materials for anyone who wants to offer an LGBTQIA+ training and awareness in their school, library or any group.
Ten Things: Creating Inclusive Health Care Environments for LGBT People
By the National LGBT Health Education Center. This Guide is written for those who are leading these efforts at their health center or other health care organization. Presented here are ten things every health care organization can do to achieve a more inclusive and affirming health care environment.

National Library of Medicine Neurodiversity Page
Includes images, charts, and video about neurodiverse people.
NIH Neurodiversity Definition
NIH Neurodiversity definition and other guidance on neurodivergent language.

LGBTQIA+ Terms (It Gets Better Project)
Provides glossary of terms, some of which include videos of people who identify with the term defined.
Mental Health
The way we talk about mental illness and the things we express publicly through media, social media, in our homes and in our workplaces can make a difference. Includes a summary of preferred language to use when communicating about mental illness and substance use.
Neurodivergent Affirming Language Guide
Neurodiverse Connection discusses some core terms within the Neurodiversity paradigm. The definitions have been supported by the works of many.
Person-first and Destigmatizing Language in Healthcare
Person-first language is a way to emphasize the person and view the disorder, disease, condition, or disability as only one part of the whole person. Describe what the person “has” rather than what the person “is.”
Preferred Terms for Select Population Groups & Communities
Language in communication products should reflect and speak to the needs of people in the audience of focus. The following provides some preferred terms for select population groups; these terms attempt to represent an ongoing shift toward non-stigmatizing language. We recommend using this section as a guide and inspiration to reflect upon word choice and choose words carefully, inclusively, and appropriately for a specific use and audience. Best practices include engaging people from the population or community of focus to find out what they prefer. (CDC)
Addressing antiquated, non-standard, exclusionary, and potentially offensive terms in evidence syntheses and systematic searches
This document provides suggested processes and wording for addressing the inclusion of antiquated, non-standard, exclusionary, and potentially offensive terms in evidence syntheses and systematic searches.
Sharing Your Pronouns (Video)
Why do people share their name and pronouns? How do you do it?
This video is presented by the LGBT Equity Center at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Promoting Citational Justice in Health Sciences
Medical Library Association's (MLA) website article discussing the idea of citational justice in research and publishing in health science fields.

A seat for all: Advancing racial equity in scholarly publishing of health policy and health services research
(video above refers to this article):
Watts, V.L., Sweet, P., Odai-Afotey, P., Ashby-Rosellon, A. and Dey, A. (2023), A seat for all: Advancing racial equity in scholarly publishing of health policy and health services research. Learned Publishing, 36: 85-93. https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.1531
Suspending Damage: A Letter to Communities
Tuck, E. (2009). Harvard Educational Review, 79(3), 409-427,539-540
Tuck urges communities to institute a moratorium on damage-centered research to reformulate the ways research is framed and conducted and to reimagine how findings might be used by, for, and with communities.
DORA - Declaration on Research Assessment
DORA’s mission is to advance practical and robust approaches to research assessment globally and across all scholarly disciplines.

A.R. Dykes Library

Health Equity and Health Disparities

Tools

Race, Ethnicity and Health Care - Reports, Fact Sheets, Explainers from the Kaiser Family Foundation